


Frank Castle's Rules for Staying with Ms.Page

by WestonFollower



Category: Daredevil (TV), The Punisher (TV 2017)
Genre: Development of Frank and Karen's Relationship, F/M, Mentions Of Castle Family
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-08
Updated: 2018-11-08
Packaged: 2019-08-20 20:18:30
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,001
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16562459
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WestonFollower/pseuds/WestonFollower
Summary: In order to live with Karen Page, Frank Castle decided to make some rules for him to follow.(Here is the few times he breaks them.)





	Frank Castle's Rules for Staying with Ms.Page

**Author's Note:**

> So Frank and Karen have completely took over my brain and I had to create this! I hope you guys like it, enjoy!

**No Bringing Work Back to Her Apartment**

Frank never does this, never. He tries to always either go to Lieberman or Curtis when he ends up getting hurt. That doesn’t happen this time, it’s not an option. Both of them are out of New York and he’s not sure where else he can go. He pounds lightly on the door and is relieved when Karen swings open the door, she’s in her pjs and looks like she was just about to go to bed.

Her smile drops when she flips on her kitchen light and gets a look at him. “Frank? What the hell happened, I thought this was supposed to be an easy job.”

He is mainly covered in blood, his own and his enemies mixed in. His right shoulder is popped out of place, so his arm is hanging weighted down. She runs a hand down his side and he cringes in pain, he can add bruised ribs to the growing list.

He throws his guns on the kitchen floor. “I’m sorry I didn’t have anywhere else to go, there was a lot more back up than I expected.”

“Ok let’s get you into the bathroom.” She grabs on to him and leads him to bathroom and gently helps him lay down. She steps over him and grabs his right hand, sticking it straight up. “I need to pop it back into place, you ready?”

He takes a deep breath before nodding. Karen twists his arm to the right and then with all of her pressure, slams it back into place with a loud pop. Frank curses loud and punches the floor, Karen hands him two aspirins to ease the pain. She leans over to start a bath for him and sets it to the temperature she knows he likes.

“Time to strip!” She smiles at him and Frank doesn’t understand how even though he’s in so much pain she still makes him feel good. They both manage to get his clothes and Karen helps him in the tub, the temperature feels perfect.

Karen goes to put the laundry in the wash, but his hand stops her. “Stay with me?”

“I guess I can,” she sits beside the tub and rubs a hand through his hair, “your chest looks very bruised do you think your ribs are broken?”

“Nah, I’m positive they’re just banged up. I know what they feel like broken.” Karen frowns at this, this exactly why he promised to never bring work home with him. She didn’t need to be dealing with this bullshit. “Hey I uh I’m sorry to come here like this, I don’t mean to worry you.”

“I’m worried no matter what Frank. I don’t mind taking care of you, it’s nice that I know exactly where you’re at all banged up like this. Instead worrying about Lieberman puking all over you because he can’t handle his stomach.”

Frank laughed loudly and then immediately regretted it when he felt the sharp pains in his chest. Karen kissed him softly and pulled back when Frank started to reach under her shirt. “Care to join me Miss Page?”

“Well if you think it will help you recover…” The only sound that filled the apartment was their laughter and sloshing of bath water hitting the tile.

**Always Buy More Coffee After It Runs Out**

Karen is late. She couldn’t find the specific top she wanted to wear with her black skirt. Then her shoes are absolutely missing and the only ones she can find is a pair of flats that don’t even match. Her hair is a disaster because she couldn’t find her brush anywhere. It’s already starting to be a perfect morning she can’t wait to see what else the world hands her.

The world hands her no coffee anywhere in her apartment and she was not the last one to drink it.

Her eyes narrow on the body of Frank Castle still sleeping on the couch, where he crashed last night. They decided to have some takeout and Karen managed to convince him to stay. She wasn’t sure what was going on between them, but they had a routine going and Frank was basically living with her now.

Living with her and taking her coffee.

“Frank! Frank Castle get your ass up right now!” She grabs a napkin, bunches it up, and throws it at his head.

Frank sits up and looks at her, still half asleep. “Why are you screaming, shouldn’t you being going to work?”

Karen was going to be the first person to have a chance to kill the Punisher. She grabs her pair of flip flops and she chucks them at him, he catches each perfectly. “I’m late for work and I have no coffee to make because someone drank the last of it.”

“Oh shit, I’m sorry I was planning on getting some more-”

Karen holds her hand up and cuts him off. “Nope I don’t want to hear it, I need to go I’ll see you later tonight.”

The door slams behind her.

When Karen gets home, she tiptoes inside, embarrassed from her outburst. Frank is sitting on the couch playing guitar he doesn’t look up, but she knows he hears her. “Frank, I am so sorry about this morning please tell me you’re not mad.”

“I’ll forgive you if you make me some coffee,” he continues to strum the guitar.

Karen opens up the cabinet to see 4 brand new packages of coffee sitting there. She smiles to herself before turning on the coffee machine and grabbing two mugs. If this is how their fights always end up resolving she could get used to it.

**Always Sleep on The Couch**

Neither are sure how Frank manages to start living at Karen’s, but it happened, and both were pretty ok with it. Karen was not ok with the fact that Frank refused to sleep in her bed, he always managed to sleep on the couch. She wasn’t trying to have sex with him or even cuddle, she just wanted to assure that he doesn’t end up having back problems because of her. That man was stubborn though and always shook his head and gave her a small smile before flopping on her shitty $55 couch.

Karen woke up and noticed that Frank was gone already in the morning. He was following a lead and had been very busy this past week, she’s barely seen him. She grabs his dirty clothes he left on the couch and threw them in the wash, he hated when she did chores for him. When she goes to grab her heels and slip them on, she drops them when she looks at the calendar.

No, no, no. It’s December 19th, the day Kevin died.

How did she miss that it was coming up? All this time she’s been spending with Frank has changed how she used to just sit there and think of it constantly. In her pocket her phone starts ringing, and she picks it up.

“Hello?”

“ _Karen, where are you? You’re 15 minutes late.”_ Ellison said on the other end.

“I uh I can’t co-come in, i-it’s Kevin’s,” she can’t finish the sentence and is shaking.

Ellison understands instantly and the concern in his voice is evident. “ _Listen, take the day off it’s a slow news day, take care of yourself.”_

She ends the phone call and continues to shake when she gets in her bedroom. With all of her effort she takes her office clothes off and crawls into bed, throwing the comforter overtop of her head, trying to make it swallow her whole. There’s a box of crackers on her nightstand so she reaches for them and shoves them in her mouth, this could work for breakfast. Her body feels like it’s shutting down and she cries into her pillow until her body can no longer. The only thing that turns off the thoughts, that turns off the guilt.

At around 3 she gets a call, it’s her father. “Hello? Dad?”

There’s the sound of a bottle clinking in the background, “ _Why’d you do it Karen? Why did you mess everything up, you should’ve left my boy alone._ ”

“Dad no, please don’t say that to me. Are you drunk right now?”

“ _Don’t you dare speak to me that way, you were a junkie and you choose to judge me for drinking? I called you because I need to make sure you know that you can’t come home. I don’t want you here and I better not see you.”_

The phone call ends and Karen tosses her phone on the floor. Her body had more tears to give and they flowed out of her and on to her pillow. It got to the point where she was dry heaving, so she grabbed her trashcan and threw up into it. He didn’t want to lose her they way they lost mom, but she ended up losing him. It wasn’t fair, she was the one that deserved it.

For the first time in 7 years she is craving cocaine, that rush of energy that would help her get out of bed. That feeling of having your mind be controlled by something other than sadness. Karen grabs the comforter and pulls it tighter before screaming in her pillow, drugs was not an option. Her body is aching, and she falls back to sleep.

Frank sighed as he unlocked the door, his lead did not turn into what he was hoping for and he was hoping to be back here before 8 but that didn’t happen. Right away he is confused, Karen’s heels were thrown in front of the door and normally when he got back late, she would leave him dinner on the stove.

“Karen?” He pulls out his gun and looks around the living room.

It didn’t seem like anyone broke in. Her bedroom door was cracked, and he pushed it open with his foot, scanning the room for threats. The only thing he found was her covered by her blankets, the lights were off. The bed creaks when he sits on it, pulling back the blanket. Karen looks at him with swollen eyes and a red nose.

“Did somebody hurt you?” She shakes her head. “I want to help you; can you tell me what’s going on?”

Karen has a couple of tears fall on the pillow before she turns away from him. “I-I-I don’t think I c-c-can.”

Frank has dealt with situation like this before, when the guys would get triggered so bad they could barely function. A splash of cold water always did the trick to get them back into the real world. Frank figured it wouldn’t hurt to try.

He went into the bathroom and started the shower and came back in, looking down at Karen. “Is it ok if I put you in the shower, I think it might help.”

She nods and doesn’t make any noise when Frank picks her up bridal style and sets her in the bathroom. She’s already in her bra and underwear so he just slips it off of her quickly, ignoring the sight of her nakedness. He helps her step in the shower and she looks up at the spray, it seemed to make her wake up almost and look at him.

After 5 minutes Karen turns off the water and grabs a towel from Frank, “Thank you.”

Frank picks her up again and carries her into the bedroom, sitting on the bed he doesn’t look at her as she changes. When she lies down beside him it all comes out, her story. She tells him everything, the drugs, the restaurant, and Kevin. If there’s anyone in the world that understands, it’s Frank.

When she’s done, she cries in his arms and by the time she’s finished a weight has been lifted off her shoulders and she is prepared for tomorrow.  When his death anniversary arrives next year for the first time Karen thinks she might be able to face it as long as Frank is by her side.

That night Frank decides to break his rule and sleeps with an arm around her waist, in her bed.

**After 3 Glasses of Wine, Cut Her Off**

  _Cccan y ou come pickk mee upp pls? 2 drunk._

Frank sits up from where he’s laying on Karen’s couch, the clock on the microwave reads 2 o’clock. It was Friday night and Karen had decided to go out with a couple of people from work. There was a rule Frank had, it was to never let Karen drink more than 3 glasses of wine, the situation between them was undetermined. They were always teetering on the line of friends or maybe more than friends, and drunk Karen got flirty, making the line blurred.

He sends her a quick text back, _Which bar?_

Frank pulls up to the front of the bar and Karen is standing there waiting for him. She opens up the passenger door and flops in the seat, smiling at him. Her hair is a mess and she has a rip in the black tights she’s wearing. Frank waits until she is buckled before peeling away.

“So how was happy hour?”

Karen laughs loudly and then reaches across grabbing his thigh, “I had so much fun! We did shots and I had tequila for the first time in I don’t even know how many years. I think when we get back home, we need to continue this party!”

Frank chuckles to himself and tries to focus on the road instead of the tight blue dress she is wearing and the feeling of her hand. She seemed to be doing well instead of being trashed from the amount she drank. When they get into the apartment, she grabs her hidden bottle of vodka and fills up three shot glasses.

“Am I uh missing something? Last time I checked there’s only two of us.” Frank pretends to look around and Karen finds this hilarious.

“Frannnkkk you have to catch up, unless you can’t handle it,” she raises an eyebrow at him.

Well Frank Castle was never a man to back down from a challenge, so he grabs the two shots before clinking them off Karen’s and gulping them down. Karen drinks it better than he did, vodka was not a favorite for him. But Frank was in the drinking mood tonight, he grabs the bottle and chugs it until it becomes too much.

“That shit is disgusting I don’t know how you drink it.”

Karen slips off her heels and grabs his arm to prevent herself from falling. “You see you don’t start with vodka, you get so drunk that it tastes like water.”

The last heel slips off her foot and she straightens up, their noses are touching. Frank leans away quickly and awkwardly turns toward the couch. “I uh think we should probably get to bed.”

Karen looks hurt and nods before stomping off to bed.

Great, Frank thinks, always got to ruin the moment. He double checks the door is locked and the windows are shut before plopping down on the couch and closing his eyes. It takes about 15 minutes before his eyes are opened again, the pitter patter of Karen’s feet on the floor wakes him. He doesn’t move until she is standing beside him.

Frank sits up and looks at Karen, she’s in her bra and underwear and breathing deeply. He reaches both hands out to pull her on the couch, so she’s straddling him. Her hands go behind his neck and begin to play with his hair, waiting for him to decide.

“I thought you were drunk,” he whispers.

Karen shrugs and presses her head to his. “I thought you would like some company.”

Frank leans forward and closes the space between them. His lips are soft against hers and gently, not what she was expecting from the big bad Punisher. They deepen the kiss simultaneously and Frank tries to control himself, Karen isn’t making it easy though. She manages to get his shirt off and starts to rub her hands over him, it feels amazing.

But it needs to stop.

Frank pulls back and gives her one more peck before saying, “I want to do this, trust me but you’re drunk, and I’m buzzed. I want to do this when we’re sober.”

“Ok but one condition.”

“What?”

Karen stands up and pulls him off the couch. “Come to bed to me?”

With big blue eyes like that, how could he say no?

**Never Let Her Hit Snooze**

“Frank! Frank, _Frank_.”

Her alarm is going off and she leans over to hit snooze. She grabs her comforter to pull it back, revealing a smiling Frank in between her thighs. He leans over to bite her thigh gently and grabs her hips tighter. This was not making it easier for her to get up and leave for work.

“I need to go, now.”

“Then,” he licks his way up her stomach, “why,” he bites her chest gently, “don’t you,” he sucks on her neck, “leave?” He kisses her deeply and grabs on to her throat.

She swats his hand away and flips them over so she’s on top. Karen Page was the only person in the world to get the jump on the Punisher. “We have to be very quick, you think you can handle that?”

Frank smiles before he gets down to work.

When Karen gets home that night, she’s short with him, obviously annoyed about the fact that she was late, _again_. Frank makes a mental note to never let her hit the snooze again if her attitude ends up being like this. After they eat in silence and she is reading a book in bed he kisses her gently, smiling when her hand starts to undo his belt.

All is forgiven, well at least that night it was.

**Never Make Her Cry**

“WHAT THE FUCK DID I SAY ABOUT KEEPING AN EYE ON KAREN?” Frank grabs a fistful of Lieberman’s shirt and shoves him into the wall, “What did I say?”

Lieberman closes his eyes and exhales loudly, “I was doing it for you, Frank! Ok? How the hell was I supposed to know someone was going to hack me and go after her.”

Frank lets him go and takes a deep breath. Lieberman was just trying to watch over Karen because he knew how much she meant to Frank. Now some jackass has her and Frank isn’t sure what to do.

“What can we do? They have her to draw me out.”

Lieberman steps away from him and starts to type quickly on his computers. Frank begins to load up the van with weapons before slipping his Punisher gear on. “Frank! Karen is a fucking genius, I don’t know how she did it, but she has one of my trackers turned on and it’s not moving. This where she is.”

Frank nods and shouts for him to grab the address before they are peeling out of their hide out.

Karen spits at the man who just back handed her. “Listen asshole I just told you I barely see Frank Castle, I only worked on his case and that’s it.”

“Hmmm well you see we’ve managed to hack into Micro. That man truly keeps his shit locked down but we were able to grab a surveillance video of your apartment and well Karen, I’m pretty sure I saw how close you and Frank truly are.”

Karen’s eyes widen, damn it David, fuck this was not good. “He’ll kill every last one of you if you lay another hand on me.”

The man grabs a fistful of her hair and pulls it, “I hope you understand that’s what we’re planning on.”

Over the next course of an hour Frank walks through the building and shoots every person he walks by. The men were prepared for his digression, but no one was ready for this. The Punisher was walking through the halls, Frank Castle was gone.

The door kicks open and his eyes flash over to Karen. She is in a chokehold and has a gun pressed to her head. “Drop the gun asshole!”

Frank keeps his gun pointed towards them. “Not gonna happen, you let her go and I’ll do what you want.”

“Frank no-” His cold eyes flash to hers and she is silenced.

The man shoots the gun towards the floor, the bullet grazes down her right arm and she can feel the blood start to flow out, good thing it’s too dark for Frank to see it. “LISTEN TO ME AND DROP IT!”

Karen can tell things are not going according to plan for this man. She’s sure he was counting on his men to at least rough Frank up, so it’s easier to take him down, but Frank is fine she’s never seen him this spotless.

Lieberman speaks to Frank through the ear piece. “ _Frank he’s got a car waiting outside, I think you should let him take her and I’ll be able to hit the drivers side. I need you to trust me._ ”

Frank is ready to fucking explode. “I’m not dropping it, we’re going to be stuck in this room until you let her go!”

“There’s another option.”

The man grabs Karen and kicks open the door. They run down the hall and get into an elevator. When they get to the ground floor there’s a car waiting, he pushes her into the passenger seat. A small voice in the back of her head tells her to buckle up so she does. They start to pick up speed and Karen notices headlights start to get closer to the driver’s side.

The impact is hard.

She feels like she’s right back to when Frank hit her car last time she was held hostage. She really needed to get a new hobby. Her body hits the pavement hard when she manages to get the door open. The bleeding on her arm wasn’t stopped so her hand reaches over to hold on to it.

Frank is sprinting to where the two vehicles are collided. He watches as Karen opens the door and falls on the pavement, shit. When he gets to her, he scoops her up into her arms, his eyes scan over the driver’s side before firing one shot at the already dead man’s head, just in case.

Lieberman watches them as Frank gets in the passenger seat, Karen still in his arms.

“I’ll make sure to clean out the computers tonight,” he says before pulling out.

Franks nods at him and looks down at Karen, “I can smell blood, are you hurt?”

“It’s just a graze,” she moves her arm and reveals the bloody gash, his jaw locks with anger, “we’ll just have to wrap it when we get to your hideout, I’m assuming were going there.”

“Yeah there’s no way in hell we’re going back to your place, here you’re freezing,” Frank grabs a blanket from the back and wraps it around them.

Karen reaches up to grab behind his neck and pull his lips down to hers. Lieberman smiles at the two but doesn’t make it obvious, Frank already wanted to kill him.

“Mmmm I’m tired,” she whispers when they break apart.

Frank runs his fingers through her hair and let’s out the breath he had been holding since he found out she was missing. “Go to sleep, we still got about 30 minutes before we get to the cabin.”

David coughs loudly and interrupts them, “Hey Karen? Can I ask you how you got one of my trackers?”

Karen keeps her eyes closed and a small smile creeps on her face. “I might’ve stolen one when me and Frank were spending time together in the mancave, I figured it would come in handy.”

David did not want to know about their sex lives. “Oh, let’s just forget I asked...”

Frank chuckled quietly to himself, that man was always asking too many questions.

When they pulled up to the cabin Karen sat up, but Frank wouldn’t let her out of his arms. He managed to grab her and his duffle bag of guns, taking them into the cabin. Lieberman pulled away and was heading back home to Sarah and the kids. The cabin has not been touched in a while, Frank has been spending all of his time at her apartment.

They are sitting at the dinning room table, wrapping her arm up. Frank has been oddly quiet through out this entire situation. Karen keeps staring at him, trying to figure out what is happening in his head. Today has been too many emotions and all she wanted to do was sleep.

“What,” she snaps at him after he tapes the gauze, “there’s something wrong with you.”

His voice is deep and thick with annoyance when he answers her. “Maybe there wouldn’t be something wrong if you weren’t constantly put in danger because of me! I knew we shouldn’t have started this, it’s time for you to wise up and stop being with me.”

Karen tries to hold back the tears but eventually they start to fall. It takes everything in Frank to not comfort her.

But then something changes, and she stands up, shoving Frank hard from where he is sitting. “Fuck you Frank, _fuck_ you! I’m going to make myself very clear, ok? It does not matter whether or not you’re in my life when it comes to danger. I have been targeted ever since I killed Kevin, I have always been dealing with this shit. You need to accept that if I end up dying it is not on you!”

Frank jumps up from where he’s sitting and slams his fist on the table. “Of course it’s on me! They targeted you because of our relationship, you really think that I wouldn’t blame myself if something happened to you?”

“I don’t want you to,” she sobs, “I want you quit blaming yourself for things you can’t control. I want us to be happy, together. All I have wanted since I met you is for you to have an after because I love you!”

Love was something not mentioned between the two of them. They both were making an effort to never move the relationship to that level. Now it was out there in the in the small space between the two of them.

Karen covers her face with her hands and sobs into them, the day has been too much on her.

Frank sighs and pulls her into his arms, she punches him two times in the chest before calming down.

They sit like that for a while, the sound of their breathing fills the cabin. They both know they’ll fight about this at least a million more times because Frank knows she could be killed, but he can’t leave her. Neither of them has the strength to say more, the day was a giant weight that took a toll on the both of them and the only cure is sleep.

They fall asleep tangled together, dreaming of an escape, of after.

**Never Fall in Love with Her**

The sound of their breathing fills the room, the grey sheets on the bed are crumpled up and sticking to their sweaty bodies. A couple different hickys are scattered around her chest while her scratch marks are still red on his back. It’s a nice enough night that they are able to leave the window open, the breeze and moonlight fill the room. A small breeze causes the curtains to move and her arms to get goosebumps. He pulls her to his chest and grabs the comforter off the floor to wrap it around them. She presses her lips to his neck, thanking him.

She loves how comfortable they are but knows in about five seconds he’ll be fidgety before going around her apartment making sure to lock the windows, check the door, and set his gun on the nightstand. Sure enough he kisses her on the head and then proceeds to do everything she listed off before crawling in bed and wrapping an arm around her waist.

Karen laughed at Frank and said, “Are you satisfied with my security system?”

“That fucking piece of shit you call a door? Never.”

She rolled her eyes at him and gave him a nice shove before closing her eyes and dozing off.

Frank stares at her sleeping and allows himself to think about what he’s been feeling recently, he loves her. It wasn’t some dramatic soap opera realization, just one day he was watching her work on an article from work and it struck him that he was in love. The guilt followed quickly after, he knew that his wife would’ve wanted him to move on. Hell, she probably would’ve been great friends with Karen.

But, how do you move on from someone you were preparing to spend the rest of your life with?

Frank isn’t sure he ever will, he’s almost positive that he’ll never be able to get married again. He’s also not sure if he’ll ever want kids again either. That was a life he already lived, no matter how short it was. Karen said she loved him about a month ago, that horrible night, and Frank isn’t sure when he’ll be able to say it back to her yet. The best thing about her is that she’s ok with that and willing to wait. That moment when they were in the elevator touching foreheads, Frank made a rule that he wouldn’t fall in love, and well that didn’t work.

Very quietly after kissing her forehead he whispers, “I love you.”

It’s enough for now between the both of them. Frank knows that he won’t be able to let her go for a while now, so they have time to figure it out.

She’s his after.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you guys liked it, let me know your thoughts on it! I'm debating to add a 2nd chapter and it be of Karen's rules so let me know if that is something you'd like to see!


End file.
